Truth under the rubble [of Palestine]: MEDIA in the time of [Israeli made] GENOCIDE

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967- Francesca Albanese

 https://x.com/FranceskAlbs/status/2114483869533823405/photo/1

https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/a81249-report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-palestinian 

Published

09 October 2026

UN symbol

A/81/249

Summary

This report examines how the destruction of truth has become integral to the destruction of a people. It identifies three interconnected patterns: the elimination of Palestinian media workers – through killing, maiming, arbitrary detention, torture, intimidation and the systematic labelling of them as “terrorists” – to suppress the documentation of crimes; the construction of an information regime in Israel through media restrictions, censorship, propaganda, hate speech, genocidal incitement and denial; and the role of influential international media and digital platforms in marginalizing Palestinian voices and reproducing Israeli narratives, normalizing legal distortions, which ultimately legitimized atrocities. Together, these practices have not merely accompanied genocide but have facilitated its commission and obstructed accountability. Some aspects of this assault on truth might be described as “mediacide”.

Issued By:

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967

Delivered To:

General Assembly - eighty-first session

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See also

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967

Tags

• Palestine

• Genocide 

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https://docs.un.org/en/A/81/249 

...READ MORE

AMERICAN DOCTOR: ‘Can we accept what we have done or not done?’: harrowing film follows doctors in Gaza. American Doctor follows three volunteer doctors as they try to save lives on the frontline and then return to the US to become advocates in congress

"... But the moral weight of American Doctor lies not just in its depiction of Gaza but its unflinching examination of the political and media machinery that enables it." 

Feroze Sidhwa in American Doctor.

Photograph: Watermelon Pictures

When she wanted to confront Americans about the consequences of their actions – or inactions – in Gaza, Poh Si Teng reached for a genre with mass popular appeal: the medical drama.

“Whether it’s The Pitt, Grey’s Anatomy, House, ER, even a comedy like Scrubs, you name it,” the documentary film-maker says via Zoom from her New York apartment. “I thought to myself, there’s something about medical dramas and doctors and human mortality in this space so let’s make The Pitt. The difference is it’s real and it’s set in Gaza and maybe this is the way to bring Palestine back to the United States.”

The result is American Doctor, a 93-minute film directed by Teng and co-produced with Kirstine Barfod and Reem Haddad, which premiered at the Sundance film festival and is out now in US cinemas.

The documentary follows three doctors from different cultural and religious backgrounds – Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian-American emergency doctor; Mark Perlmutter, a Jewish orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina; and Feroze Sidhwa, a Zoroastrian trauma surgeon based in California – as they volunteer on the frontlines of Gaza’s collapsing hospital system.

They return to the US as advocates in the halls of Congress, which continues to send military aid to Israel. The film highlights the unique position of American doctors as witnesses whose professional standing makes their testimony difficult for politicians and even rightwing media to dismiss as propaganda.

The journey of Teng to making the film began in the fall of 2024, a year into the military campaign in Gaza. The Malaysian-American had spent years as a producer, documentary commissioning editor for Al Jazeera English and creative director at ABC/Disney but felt suffocated by the professional and political silence surrounding what she does not hesitate to call a genocide.

 “I was so frustrated and it felt like nothing was changing,” the 41-year-old explains. “In our journalism circles, even though we were seeing so many Gazan journalists being targeted and executed, it felt like in the western part of the world – specifically where I was situated in New York – that people were still whispering about Palestine... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/aug/17/gaza-doctor-documentary

 AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

"His [Trump's] escalation against Iran comes as he faces mounting domestic pressure, for attacking the civil rights of US citizens in Minneapolis, amid renewed scrutiny surrounding the Epstein files, and just days after the US supreme court struck down the legal justification for his global tariff policy." Christopher S Chivvis

‘If Trump cares little for strategy, this does not make strategy irrelevant.’ Photograph: Fatima Shbair/AP

Trump wants to distract Americans from scandals at home with a diversionary war

Christopher S Chivvis

Iran strikes are attempt to hijack the global narrative and drown out Epstein and tariffs with the thunder of cruise missiles

 

Sat 28 Feb 2026 15.00 EST

In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq without deciding whether it should. The George W Bush administration failed to ask whether the costs, risks and likely consequences of regime change justified the gamble. The result was tragedy – for Iraq, for the Middle East and for America.

Donald Trump’s attack on Iran now follows the same pattern – but with an even narrower logic of performative power. In the run-up to Iraq, Washington devoted enormous energy to planning the invasion. Almost no attention was given to the more important question: was war necessary, and could it realistically produce a stable political outcome?

Now history is repeating itself. Having torn up the Iran nuclear deal and escalated pressure, the president has now initiated a military campaign explicitly aimed at regime collapse. Yet there has been no serious public reckoning with the risks, much less the plausibility of the political end state he claims to seek. By weaponising the military for the sake of the attention economy, Washington has traded grand strategy for the immediate gratification of the news cycle.

This is because the outcome of the war is less important to Trump than violent conflict with America’s enemy and the performative use of US power.

Trump’s foreign policy is not guided by a coherent theory of order, deterrence or alliance management. It is driven instead by the demonstration of dominance, the creation of spectacle and the command of the news cycle. Military force, in this framework, is not a tool subordinated to strategy. It is the strategy.

His escalation against Iran comes as he faces mounting domestic... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/28/diversionary-war-trump-wants-to-distract-americans-from-scandals-at-home?CMP=share_btn_url 

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"Difficult to function while a genocide in Gaza – which is still ongoing – and accelerated ethnic-cleansing in the West Bank unfolds. And it has been difficult to wrestle with the ways in which the media is complicit in what is happening. More than 200 Palestinians journalists have been killed in Gaza by Israel since 7 October; far too many journalists in the West have been silent about this. The scale of carnage in Gaza simply wouldn’t have been able to take place without the media dehumanizing Palestinians and manufacturing consent for atrocities...."

" For example: one of the biggest and most inflammatory talking points after 7 October – one which helped convince people there wasn’t a single innocent Palestinian civilian – was that Hamas beheaded 40 babies. Hamas committed verified atrocities, but this was a lie. It was one, however, which plenty of journalists, including CBS news correspondent and a CNN anchor, spread without properly confirming. The CNN anchor later apologized; CBS did not." Arwa Mahdawi

READ MORE  

 https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/15/its-the-medias-job-to-hold-power-to-account-this-year-too-many-got-into-bed-with-it-instead 

 AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

 

A protestor in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: David Swanson/Reuters

It’s the media’s job to hold power to account. This year, too many got into bed with it instead

Arwa Mahdawi

 The lines between advertising, public relations and journalism have become dangerously blurred

 Funded by readers, the Guardian’s fierce independence is guaranteed. Please help us reach our year-end fundraising goal

Enough time has passed now, I think, that I can safely tell you about one of the stupidest things I have ever done. Almost a decade ago I decided to quit my well-paid job in advertising in order to pursue a precarious career in freelance journalism. The merits of that decision are up for debate but the real stupidity is in how I quit my job: I wrote a rather cringeworthy column for the Guardian about my “meaningless job in advertising” and publicly proclaimed that I’d decided to quit. My boss saw the piece and, well, he obviously wasn’t happy. (Sorry, Sean!)

I bring this embarrassing anecdote up because I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting recently on the reasons why I left advertising. Maybe this sounds twee, but I was sick of selling people things they didn’t need. I wanted to do something meaningful.

You know what, though? While selling underwear and vodka to the masses may not be entirely fulfilling, it’s better for the soul than selling people wars and genocide... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/15/its-the-medias-job-to-hold-power-to-account-this-year-too-many-got-into-bed-with-it-instead

"Gaza is currently facing a humanitarian catastrophe as a result of Israel's destruction of more than 90% of homes while the Strip is facing a storm with rain and winds exceeding 100 km/h, which will sweep away and completely flood hundreds of thousands of dilapidated tents, threatening the lives of people, especially children, who will be left exposed to the bitter cold and disease." Dr. Mustafa Barghouti

 Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti

@MustafaBarghou1

·

Dec 10

 

Dr. Mustafa Bargouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, called on the international community to exert immediate and effective pressure on Israel to allow the entry of tents, prefabricated homes, fuel, humanitarian aid, and medical equipment into the Gaza Strip. 

 

He stated that Gaza is currently facing a humanitarian catastrophe as a result of Israel's destruction of more than 90% of homes while the Strip is facing a storm with rain and winds exceeding 100 km/h, which will sweep away and completely flood hundreds of thousands of dilapidated tents, threatening the lives of people, especially children, who will be left exposed to the bitter cold and disease. 

 

Barghouti condemned the audacity of some Israeli media outlets that are spewing hatred and wishing destruction upon the Palestinians as they face the storm battering the Gaza Strip. 

 

He questioned the extent of the suffering that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip must endure as a result of the Israeli war of genocide and the inaction of many international parties in confronting it.

 https://x.com/MustafaBarghou1/status/1998736261599641715

  AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies] 

Philippe Lazzarini: "Silencing voices. As if banning international media is not enough. Humanitarian workers are also banned when they report on atrocities committed in Gaza & elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territory." ... OPEN THE GATES!

 Philippe Lazzarini

@UNLazzarini

·

16h

Silencing voices. 

 

As if banning international media is not enough. Humanitarian workers are also banned when they report on atrocities committed in #Gaza & elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territory. 

 

The denial of a visa to our colleague from @ochaopt is the latest in a pattern of restrictions. 

 

Since the beginning of the war, the Israeli authorities have increasingly denied or failed to renew visas for UN staff, including Humanitarian Coordinators, heads of UN agencies & staff of International NGOs. 

 

In addition, legislative restrictions to intimidate Israeli Human rights organisations were adopted. 

 

All @UNRWA international staff have not been granted visas for nearly six months now. 

 

I, too, have been denied entry to Gaza since March 2024 after the @CIJ_ICJ ruling & to the West Bank including East Jerusalem since June 2024. 

 

Visas must be granted to humanitarian staff to support the work of their Palestinian colleagues. 

 

Coupled with the ongoing ban of international media to enter Gaza, these visa denials are deepening the spread of dis-information & increasing de-humanization of the people in #Gaza.

 

United Nations

@UN

The world is witnessing an utter disregard for – if not outright violations of – international law; with no accountability. 

 

@antonioguterres  says failures to uphold international obligations are coming at a staggering cost — measured in lost lives and shattered communities.

 

 

UNRWA

@UNRWA

People in #Gaza, including UNRWA staff, are fainting due to starvation and severe hunger. 

 

People including children are dying from severe malnutrition. 

 

People are being starved. 

 

UNRWA alone has thousands of trucks in neighbouring countries waiting to enter Gaza – banned by Israeli Authorities from entering since March. 

 

The siege must be lifted now to allow our lifesaving humanitarian aid in.

 https://x.com/i/status/1947899556789686722

God protect us all from all the idiocy and murderous propaganda...

 Dr. Omar Suleiman

@omarsuleiman

It’s so important for folks in the West to watch media from other parts of the world. The brainwashing colonial era tropes are so potent, especially with populations that have never traveled beyond their borders. God protect us all from all the idiocy and murderous propaganda.

Netanyahu's top administration official Ben-Gvir brags today about blocking past ceasefire deals that would've released Israeli hostages.

(((DeanObeidallah)))

@DeanObeidallah

" Why isn't this covered in the US media?!! Netanyahu's top administration official Ben-Gvir brags today about blocking past ceasefire deals that would've released Israeli hostages." https://jpost.com/breaking-news/

We Are Not Numbers- Palestinian youth tell their human stories behind the numbers in the news

 

get involved https://wearenotnumbers.org/get-involved/

You too can help the youth of Gaza share their stories by:

• Donating money to help pay a monthly stipend to the three Gaza youth on our project team, transportation expenses for the participating writers (many of whom could not otherwise afford to travel to workshops), rent office space, rent video equipment, etc. Even a donation of $5 helps!
• Publicizing our website by sharing the link with friends and family via social media and email.
• Finding other media willing to re-publish our participants’ stories, such as relevant websites and university or hometown newspapers. If you have a suggestion and/or can introduce us to an appropriate contact, email Pam Bailey (pam@wearenotnumbers.org).

Don’t forget to sign up to receive via email each new story posted to the website!

Meanwhile, other sites that are useful for up-to-date Palestinian news are Palestine Chronicle,  Mondoweiss, AlJazeera, Middle East Eye, The New Arab and Ma’an News. Educate yourself, then:

• Write letters to the editor when you read media coverage that is incorrect or incomplete.
  

.... We Are Not Numbers (WANN) is a youth-led Palestinian nonprofit project in the Gaza Strip. It tells the stories behind the numbers of Palestinians in the news and advocates for their human rights. WANN was founded and conceived in early 2015 by the American journalist Pam Bailey. The project was brought to fruition by Dr Ramy Abdu, chairman of the board of directors at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor). WANN is registered under the umbrella of Euro-Med and its fiscal sponsor is Nonviolence International, a U.S. organization.

Our Story During the Israeli military attack against Palestinians in the summer of 2014, Ahmed Alnaouq’s 23-year-old brother, Ayman, was killed by an Israeli missile while simply walking on the street near his home in Dir-Al-Balah. Ahmed sunk into depression from which he thought he would never return to normal life again. During this time, he met Pam Bailey, who encouraged him to write his story.

The story resonated with and attracted a great deal of attention from people in the West. As a result, established and aspiring “word artists” from around the world joined with youth in Gaza, and now, West Bank and the diaspora, to create We Are Not Numbers. Through this platform, we share and celebrate the stories, daily personal struggles and triumphs, the tears and the laughter, and the aspirations of Palestinians that are so universal that if it were not for the context, they would immediately resonate with virtually everyone.

 

Statement of solidarity with Palestine from Kenyan artists to WANN writers... 

"... We are outraged by the mainstream media’s continuous complicity in dehumanizing Palestinians and silencing their narrative.

We denounce antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, and all acts of violence and terrorism in all forms. We believe every human life matters and every human being deserves to live a life of dignity.

We are moved by the Palestinian people’s resilience, strength, and spirit and the fearlessness of the Jewish people who are speaking up against what the state of the Israel is committing in their name.

We call on all people of conscience to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the safe release of all hostages. We firmly believe lasting peace and security can only be attained through political solutions that bring an end to Israeli military occupation and state violence against Palestinians.... "